For this purpose, filling machines are used comprising a carousel conveyor rotating continuously about an axis; a number of feed devices for supplying the fill material, and which are carried by the conveyor, arranged about the rotation axis of the conveyor, and located at respective loading stations; and a supporting and weighing unit carried by the conveyor to support a number of empty containers, each located at a respective loading station to receive the fill material from a respective feed device.
In known machines of the above type (e.g. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,102), the supporting and weighing unit comprises a cylindrical tank and an annular ring plate, which is placed under the tank, is coaxial to the tank and supports weighing heads, each of which is designed to weigh a respective container and is directly placed on an upper surface of the annular ring plate. In known machines of the above type, the supporting and weighing unit is therefore an integrated unit, so that any servicing and/or repairs and/or replacements and/or cleaning carried out at any one of the loading stations call for stopping the machine throughout. In this regard, it is worth noting that the interspace between the weighing heads and the upper surface of the annular ring plate is particularly difficult to properly clean.